Prof’s Positives Week 28: Italians and Barbarians

By The Prof
March 13 2003

Well with the Six Nations last weekend there no Quins first team matches to look back on, but there has been a lot going on.

The Jarrod Cunninhgam SALSA benefit match last Thursday was a great spectacle of open, fast, running rugby which is a credit both to the quality of players who were on display but also because of the ‘gentle’ refereeing. Quins had two players in the Barbarians team ‘Big Bill’ Satala, who had a pretty good game in the centres, and Roy Winters who had played his first game of the season against the Army just the week before. Roy had a great game before being pulled off only to be put back on again after a brief rest. He seemed to look faster and leaner than he had in previous seasons. He has always looked like a 6 or 8 to me and there has always been the nagging problem of where he would fit in a back row that also contained Vos, Tiatia, Sanderson, Diprose, Sherriff etc, With a couple of injuries to other backrowers it looks like Roy will be starting against London Irish this weekend – we all wish him well and the same success as he had in his last two outings.

Burke played for Ireland A against the French at the weekend and had a very good game with the boot by all accounts kicking four first half penalties and one conversion before he was pulled off in the 81st minute and replaced by his opposite number this weekend – London Irish’s Barry Everitt.

The Quins action this week came from the junior teams, the U19s lost their match but the U21s won with fine performances from Ben Hopkins, Henry Barratt and Adrian Jarvis. Sadly the Quins captain, Tom Allen, injured his knee and had to be replaced.

I haven’t heard from the Amateurs or Ladies teams and don’t know how they got on so on to the Six Nations. Will and Dan were both selected and for the first 20 or so minutes it looked like they would be on a side that would win by a landslide. But injuries occurred and the England team started too look strangely familiar to we Quins fans watching – Greenwood at fly-half, two scrum-halfs on the pitch – everyone around us (well at least those that weren’t in the corporate boxes behind us who could only say “Well played Jonny” even when he had been pulled off) was amused and confused by the changes. Will showed what a great ball player he is playing in a strange position for Quins may not be too hard for someone of his ability but to play in that position for England is another matter altogether. The 60 minutes of tackling practise that Italy gave England will have been good training for our chaps and Dan Luger scored a typical out and out winger’s try which I believe takes him to 100 points for England.

This week promises to provide more to write about by having the game away to London Irish – Come on you Quinssa!